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Father asks how bailed paedophile Darryl James Osborne allowed to offend again

Updated
Mon 3 Feb 2014, 9:18 PM AEDT

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Serial paedophile Darryl James Osborne leaves court.

ABC News

The father of one of three young boys abused by a paedophile in a small country town east of Perth is demanding to know why residents were not alerted the man was on bail for child sex offences.

Darryl James Osborne was facing a string of charges, including the sexual penetration of a child, when he committed the new offences.

The first assaults took place between 2007 and 2011 at a primary school near Perth where he worked as a parent helper.

After appearing in court in April 2011, he was released on bail until his trial.

During that time, he worked at a gold mine near the small town.

The father of one abused boy, who is not named to protect the identity of the victims, told the ABC authorities should have alerted the police and the local school that Osborne was living in the town.

"The fact is if we had, or the town had of had any inkling, any idea that this person was amongst us then these offences would never have happened," he said.

The fact is if we had...any idea that this person was amongst us then these offences would never have happened.

Victim's father

The Education Minister Peter Collier says he would be surprised if the local school was not notified.

He says while he does not know the details surrounding the case, he would expect the school to have been told.

"I would find it surprising that the school wasn't notified, I've got to be honest," he said.

"But in terms of informing the entire school community, that's not standard process."

The victim's father says Osborne was able to ingratiate himself into the community.

He visited the local pool where he was popular with local kids.

Then he disappeared from the town.

Osborne's past offences revealed

The first time community members heard Osborne's name again was when he was convicted of multiple counts of child sex offences in mid 2012.

"Until this came out in the papers we had absolutely no idea and obviously when it came out we had a horrible gut feeling and further investigated and it was obvious that this person was what he was," the father said.

Another mother asked him to speak with two boys after she became concerned about their contact with Osborne.

"I just explained to them, some people pretend to be your friend and pretend to do the right thing, and they get your trust and your mum and dad's trust but really they're not nice people at all," he said.

"And then I mentioned this person's name [Osborne], and instantly, the second that I mentioned this name, one of the young boys' head dropped down, he's looking at his feet, basically in embarrassment and shame I suppose, and I just, I thought, here's victim number one."

"This boy's just jumped up, run into his bedroom, jumped up on his bunk, sobbed."

"I walked out and I've seen the look on another boy's face and I've just known. We've got victim number two."

But the horror hit home when he received a call from his wife, crying uncontrollably and he realised Osborne had also attacked his own son.

His own child kept the abuse secret for a number of months because Osborne had threatened the boy.

"He [Osborne] said to him, 'if you tell anybody I will kill your mother, I will kill your father, I will kill your two sisters'," he said.

The man is demanding to know why community members - including local police - were not informed of the man's charges and bail convictions, which he said included a provision prohibiting unsupervised contact with a minor under the age of 16.

He cannot understand how he was employed on the local gold mine and questions whether police checks were undertaken.

The Police Minister Liza Harvey said it is a serious matter and she has sought urgent advice from the Police Commissioner.

The man's family has since moved away from the town.

Osborne was sentenced to 10 years for his earlier crimes in 2012. Last week he received an additional two years for his conviction on six counts of sexual offences against boys under 13.